Women's Suffrage Movement Research Paper

Economically and socially the movement gained women more rights and privileges. The Women's Rights Movement granted women more political rights like property rights. It changed how both genders saw one another and themselves. But did it really give women and men equality? Did it really make everything better?

Equal rights have long been sought out by the people of America and they continue to be chased after today. Several of our freedoms were originally seen by the Constitutional to be inalienable, so ingrained in what the founding fathers saw as American values that the Bill of Rights has set them in stone. Unfortunately for some, universal suffrage was not one of those rights. While voting was largely limited at the founding of America, citizens, namely white males, slowly gained the right to vote without discrimination towards age or social status. However, women remained barred from the ballot, regardless of race. Though the suffrage movement started as a woman’s social movement, it evolved into a driving force that would hold the power to put in place a nineteenth constitutional amendment.

There are people, groups, and events that helped women gain equal rights as women. The Seneca Falls Conventions occurred in 1848 and Congress were introduced to the amendment granting women’s suffrage in 1878. (Document 3) After many women began to realize that their rights were limited, about 300 women and men came to the Seneca Falls Convention. The Seneca Falls Convention occurred on July 19 to 20 in the year of 1848. It was the first convention on women’s right and everything except women’s suffrage was approved. Women suffrage is the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton ,Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass were one of the many that fought for women's suffrage. Lucretia Mott was one of the leading women abolitionist and decided it

In most modern governments, such as the United States of America, give the right to vote to almost every responsible adult citizen. There were limiters on the right to vote when the US Constitution was written, and the individual states were allowed to setup their own rules governing who was allowed to vote. Women were denied the right to vote until the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution which was passed in 1920. In order to understand how women struggled to obtain the right to vote, some key factors must be looked at in further detail; why suffrage rights were not defined in the Constitution, the efforts that women put forth to obtain the right to vote, why there are present-day restrictions on

During the late 19th century, women were in a society where man was dominant. Women not having natural born rights, such as the right to vote, to speak in public, access to equal education, and so forth, did not stop them to fight for their rights. Women's lives soon changed when Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony played a prominent role to help bring about change.

Once the idea of Women’s voting rights were produced, two ladies (Susie B. Anthony and and Elizabeth Cady Stanton) wrote the 19th amendment, but it took 41 years for it to pass fully through congress and get accepted into the Constitution. In fact, it took so long that neither of them got to actually see the amendment pass. It was passed in congress in June of 1919 and ratified August of 1920. Men were the main cause as to why this amendment didn’t pass through right away, they felt it wasn't a woman's “job” to uphold “their” country. However, women did not back down, they rallied and formed alliances until finally it was passed and ratified. With this strong devodance to their American rights, they captured the ideal image of the Woman’s Suffrage Era, showing the amount of strength and persuasion it took to get their equal

Cultural changes were occurring in the United States in the early 1800s that would eventually contribute to the women’s movement. The Second Great Awakening emphasized individualism, this idea expanded to people like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and, Lucretia Mott who fought for women’s right to vote.  Stanton, Mott, and a few other met in the Seneca Falls, New York; they drew up the first public protest in America against women’s political, economic, and social inferiority (Kraditor 1). Women’s roles were viewed as homemakers, being part of their family and not individuals with their own rights. Women faced many challenges throughout history with not being able to participate in politics nor receiving equality especially their voting rights. Although there wasn’t a federal amendment for women’s voting, many states did implement the rights to vote for women.

During the 1850’s the women’s rights movement in the United States continued to build, but lost momentum when the Civil War began. After the war ended, the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were drafted and ratified; protection to all citizens - with the term “citizens” defined as male, and suffrage for black men, respectively. The drafting of the 15th Amendment caused animosity with women’s rights activists and led them to believe that this was their chance to push lawmakers for truly universal suffrage. They “allied

Up until the 1920s, women’s struggle for their right to vote seemed to be a futile one. They had been fighting for their suffrage for a long time, starting numerous women's rights movements and abolitionist activists groups to achieve their goal. “The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had enfranchised almost all white males (“The Fight for Women's Suffrage” ). This sparked women to play a more emphatic role in society. They began to participate in anti-slavery organizations, religious movements, and even meetings where they discussed that when the Constitution states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

“Remember the ladies”, wrote boldly by the soon to be First Lady Abigail Adams to her husband John Adams in March 1776. Abigail Adams’s words were one of the first noted mentions in the United States foreshadowing the beginning of a long suppressed battle towards women’s suffrage. The fight for women suffrage was a movement in which women, and some men included, pleaded for equal rights regarding voting and women’s voice within the political realm. Women’s suffrage was not a matter of instant success; it endured a prolonged time to achieve. It was not until August 1920, about 14 decades later after Abigail Adam’s words, that the 19th amendment which had provided everyone the right to vote regardless of a person’s “sex”, had passed. Although the 19th amendment nationalized equal voting rights in the country in 1920, many states ratified this amendment in even later years. The lengthy period and long complex battles towards victory were the result of many obstacles between suffragists and anti-suffragists; obstacles which hindered the movement’s progress and which are not limited to: traditionally accustomed values, religion, split arguments within the movement, and other national political setbacks. If these setbacks were handled differently in a more urgent manner, women suffrage might have achieved earlier than 1920 or in a shorter amount of gruesome activism period.

The creation and advancement of the United States national government sparked recognition by women to understand the importance of and wanting the right to vote. Women’s rights and the reform movement were a contentious request at best. Not until 1848 did an organized convention occur that would later serve as a building block towards women’s rights advancements in the future. The United States was governed by all men who already had an opinion of what a women’s place in society should be, in the home, and the issue of women’s rights was

At a first glance, one might look at the current status of women’s rights and conclude that much has changed since the beginning of the twentieth century. This is not entirely untrue - women have indeed been granted universal suffrage in the United States. However, there are still significant challenges which women face in the present day. This paper seeks to understand the early women’s suffrage movement in all aspects, which will include individuals, events, and activism. Although it did not happen immediately, this movement resulted in success in the form of universal suffrage. Through various activist tactics ranging from public protests to the more behind-the-scenes activism such as written articles. By studying and understanding activist movements of the past, we are better able to be successful in our present-day activism. This essay will also analyse the problems with voting that women face today, and attempt to discover ways in which the current situation can be improved. Even though women have had suffrage for the past 96 years, they still face troubles when it comes to election day. Voter ID laws are emerging in many states, which can create struggles for women at the polls. This has disenfranchised many female voters, and has an even larger impact of women who come from minority groups. By raising awareness for these problems, we can help make change happen to improve the situation, just like the suffragettes did in the early women’s rights movement.

California women and men worked tirelessly to strengthen the women’s suffrage campaign from 1893, when the state legislature passed an amendment permitting women to vote in state elections, through the final passage of the amendment in 1911. The strength of the movements themselves, passionate support overcoming harsh opposition, pushed by the people and the organizations championing for the women’s vote were the main contributing factors which accumulated in the eventual passage of Amendment 8. Since California women have begun to vote, there have been many advancements and setbacks in the other women’s rights movements, including the Nineteenth Amendment and the Equal Rights Amendment.

The battle for equal rights among women was a prolonged and challenging movement that stretched over two centuries of American history and is arguably one of the most important reform efforts in our nation’s affairs. The 1995 PBS documentary, “One Woman, One Vote” successfully established an informative timeline, using letters, film reels, photographs and a variety of voices, to recreate the events during this strenuous fight for equality. In a 72 year existence of the Declaration of Independence and woman having no right over their children, their own bodies and absolutely no political foothold; woman ceased to exist legally for far too long. Half of the citizens in America were keeping the other half from the ballots and those who cited women of having no rights were accused of blasphemy. The year of 1848, declared a necessary and paramount social issue, woman’s suffrage, in high hopes to prompt change among the western nation. These women knowingly commenced a revolution that would change the course of history forever.

Seventy-two years before the 19th amendment was additional to the constitution, women knew variations desired to be formed. Women in Britain grew sick and tired with the laws prohibiting them from the right to vote, hold office or sit on juries. Their main grievance was clearly stated in a document, which was created shortly after the convention and first printed in a small town paper, that document was the declaration of rights and sentiments. The declaration stated the 18 main grievances that the majority of women had with American tradition and law. It was modeled after the Declaration of Independence and the first sentence declares “men and women are created equal.”